Pentagon Weapons Buyers Say Cuts May Delay Aircraft Plans

Oct. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Chief weapons buyers for the U.S.
military services outlined the impact of continued defense
budget cuts, including a delay of 25 aircraft for the Navy and
Marine Corps that would have been purchased this fiscal year.

Written testimony submitted today for a House subcommittee
hearing from Sean Stackley, the Navy’s assistant secretary for
acquisition, his Army counterpart Heidi Shyu and the Air Force’s
William LaPlante represented worst-case estimates of budget cuts
facing the Pentagon in the year that began Oct. 1.

While the Pentagon has tried to shelter from cuts its
costliest weapons systems, led by Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35
fighter, pressure is growing for reductions in weapons accounts
because President Barack Obama has for the second year exempted
the accounts that pay military personnel. Compensation amounts
to about $137.1 billion of the president’s proposed $526.6
billion defense budget, not including war costs.

The first obstacle facing the Pentagon is the impact of a
stopgap funding measure that freezes defense spending at current
levels and would require a reduction of about $20 billion if
continued throughout the fiscal year. The current stopgap
measure goes through Jan. 15.

The second obstacle is a full round of automatic cuts,
known as sequestration, requiring a reduction of about $52
billion.

Unless Congress and Obama reverse the sequestration cuts,
the Navy may have to delay plans to purchase aircraft, Stackley
said in testimony submitted to the House Armed Services
subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces.

Growler, Osprey

Some of the affected aircraft include four Boeing Co.
EA-18G Growler electronic warfare planes, two Boeing P-8
reconnaissance aircraft and as many as three V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft made by Textron Inc. and Boeing, Stackley said.
Two Navy or Marine Corps F-35s wouldn’t be bought out of the 10
planned, he said.

Shyu said in her statement that sequestration at the
current level may require delaying the purchase from Chicago-based Boeing of 12 Apache helicopters in addition to 13 cut last
year. The Army wouldn’t pay General Dynamics Corp. to modify as
many as 50 Stryker vehicles into a “Double-V” model that
improves their capability to withstand roadside bomb blasts, she
said.

LaPlante said in his testimony that the Air Force may have
to cut as many as five of 19 F-35s it planned to buy from
Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed this year.